Where is it?

M25 junction 23 and A1(M) junction 1. A vital northern radial route from London crosses the country's most important ring road, the M25.

What's wrong with it?

Another case of the hopelessly underpowered here. Not only is it another of my pet hates, the three-level stacked roundabout interchanges, but it's blocked enough to have that most fashionable of accessories, traffic lights at each entry point. A simple journey from the M25 anticlockwise to South Mimms Services takes the motorist through five sets of traffic lights, with another four on exiting the services to return to the motorway. Just to add to the excitement, a local road (the A1081, ex-A6) joins in the fun.

Why is it wrong?

Basically a desire to be cheap. The A1(M) terminates on the M25 here, but that means the A1 to the south has no motorway restrictions and therefore this junction must provide an exit for non-motorway traffic. Immediately a free-flow junction is made impossible since the A1081 now has to be there.

What would be better?

Something free flow would be good, or at the very least demolishing the services and shifting them somewhere else so the junction doesn't have to take their traffic too. The only way to really improve this would be to upgrade the A1 south of here to A1(M) as well and shut off the A1081 link, finally allowing a free-flow junction.

Right to reply

I love this roundabout use it every morning to go to work. They've even got the lights sorted so you can go all the way round without stopping. Only gripe is that the lanes don't match up as you go through each set of lights.

It might be possible to go all the way round without stopping but, if you enter the roundabout from the eastbound M25 (St Albans), then it is likely that you'll catch ALL the lights at red - creating huge delays and pollution. One great improvement would be the removal of traffic lights at the A1081 junction

Why all the gripes about this junction? As long as each driver reads the road properly and follows the directional arrows which are clearly marked on the road, there is no problem. The problems start when those who do NOT read the road markings are in the wrong lane and cut across other lanes to get to their required lane. Usually the culprits are boy racers in flash cars with loud rubbishy music blaring out.

I hate the South Mimms roundabout! As a newish driver I use a satnav and I keep finding myself in the wrong lane, nearly going through red lights, feeling very confused. I would like to avoid it altogether but that seems more or less impossible for many journeys.

I use this junction a lot, since I live in Barnet just to the south. This means I usually come to the junction by way of the A1081, of which you complain; it leads into High Barnet town centre.

I think you're being harsh, here. This junction is my main gateway out of London to the country beyond, as it allows me fast access to the A1 and, via the M25, the rest of the motorway network. Without the A1081 link, a large chunk of north London suburbia would be denied easy access to the motorway system. I, and thousands of others, would have to drive through Totteridge or Arkley, on local roads, to reach the A1 at Edgware. There is no need for the A1(M) to continue beyond the M25; south of this point the A1 is a normal, if very busy, urban arterial road, with many access points and roundabouts. And so it should be.

This roundabout (junction 23, as I know it) may be large and busy and have more traffic lights than is ideal, but it is hardly a nightmare.

Th A1081 has never been a cause of problems on this junction so shutting it off is a pointless suggestion! Also making the A1 south of here motorway would solve nothing. I use this daily and have done so for 10 years now. This junction regularly got grid-locked as selfish idiots ignored the lights and joined the back of queues, blocking entries and exits. Since the widening and remarking of lanes a couple of years though, this has problem has all but disappeared. Camera's to stop people jumping the lights would be good, especially on the set prior to joining the A1 northbound as many twats regularly have a long run up to them and jump them at red, endangering traffic exiting the M25 clockwise.

Where there is a problem then it is often down to satnav users. The cars that weave from lane to lane usually have that telltale glowing screen above the dash. If you just look out of the window and follow the signs then there is no problem.

I use this a lot, the only issue I have is the A1(M) southbound to M25 clockwise movement (one I do a couple of times a week) really needs more capacity as it often queues back to the A1(M) mainline, and results in people using the inside lane on the slip (signed for the Services) to cut in across the lane markings to jump the queue. However, the junction works pretty well- and the traffic volumes on the M25 often mean you are joining queuing traffic, so free-flow interchange from the A1(M) wouldn't really speed things up.

In addition to the roads you list, there are also a couple of unclassified local roads accessible via the Service Area approach road (one of these, to South Mimms village, can be a useful escape from the M25 onto the parallel B556). So, strictly speaking, the A1081 link is not essential as an exit for non-motorway traffic.

Though I still prefer to avoid using the roundabout here, its current guise has far better flows than formerly.

Your comment about moving the services is probably valid, but this would mean the necessity for two sets of service stations, one on the M25, one on the A1(M). I tend to agree with other posters that the A1081 isn't really a culprit - the London Borough of Barnet needs a way out to the A1(M), and this is by far the best one for the vast majority of its residents. By all means create a slip road on to the A1(M) north of South Mimms with a minor road continuing along the old A6 - but I'm not sure that is cost justified. The benefit to the junction would come from the removal of the services.

Just a wild idea after reading the most recent comment... what about making the service's accesses on the M25 EB and A1(M) SB instead? That would eliminate the need of two services, as well as simplifying the junction. The two carriageways connected to the services would have to take some extra load though...

I travelled South on the A1(M) then onto M25 heading East at peak time this morning and it was appalling. At the turn off there is only one feeder lane which had a huge queue of backed up traffic due to the traffic lights. Whilst it splits into 4 lanes eventually the single feeder lane is plainly inadequate at peak times.

I use this junction at least once a week, and every time there is always chaos of some degree, usually it begins on the A1(M) at J2, with queues even reaching back to the Hatfield Tunnel at times. I dread to think what it's like for the A1 northbound, but then they have an extra lane, which would be incredibly handy on the A1(M)! The clear issue here is that the sliproads, all of them in fact, do not have enough stacking space, with the most popular destinations poorly catered for! The whole gyratory should be 4 lanes, try and get rid of a few traffic lights (or at least upgrade to MOVA/SCOOT, so you don't sit at a red for 60 seconds unnecessarily), maybe even provide left hand filters, especially for the M25 (C-wise) to A1(M) (Nbound), surprisingly this is a very popular route! Investment has been made to the M25 above the junction, but as usual with infrastructure money, it failed to work its way down to where it was needed! We shall have to continue with this shambles I suppose, and continue the battle against confused drivers, and risk taking locals weaving like crazy!

This junction is just very confusing. Every time I attempt to join the M25 from the A1(M) southbound I get lost. I think instead of making a turn-off on the A1(M), make it come to a stop at the roundabout and reduce the space taken by the roundabout and it may be a bit easier.

A dismal junction, especially confusing to those who don't use it regularly and don't know which lane they should be in. All right for those who do. I never go south towards it in the morning as the tailback for the exit ramp is often many hundreds of yards. Not so bad in the evening for those going west and then north on the A1, although the penny-pinching two lane layout north of the interchange frequently has traffic slowing to a crawl just from cars joining it from the sliproad.

The main problem is the volume of traffic trying to access the roundabout from the A1M southbound. Once on the roundabout it is very well signed with lanes spiralling properly to take people off at their exits. The problem on the roundabouts is people who think that the direction signs are for decoration and end up making panic lane changes when they discover that the lanes are actually spiral to take you off at the signed exit.